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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Oh My Achin' Back

All rocks are in place!! With the assistance of my dear husband, we now have placed both pallets of river stone into the gardens. We were able to get the first pallet done rather quickly on Sunday, a day that was not hot. Sunday was a beautiful day, low humidity and in the mid 80's.

Our backs were not stressed too much as we bought a cart that hooks on the lawn tractor to haul the rocks downhill. I have two wagons and a wheelbarrow, all of which are a pain to push/pull back uphill. Even though they are empty on the way up they get heavy, heavier with each trip. This cart made our task manageable. Charlie got a lot of the rocks into the cart, especially the large ones. We off loaded them into the general area of the garden and I shifted them around to where I wanted them.

Today we took the second pallet to their new homes. The second pallet had some much larger rocks. We had a few extra that were place in less critical areas. This is the area where I had much of the washout in May and June. Mulch still needs to added....not this week though. Not next week or the week after....will wait for fall.

These two pictures were taken from the deck, a bird's eye view. It gives a nice overview of the whole garden. Love the white Phlox in the center of the picture!!

This is a two stage plan for curtailing washout...rocks and mulch then more plants that will hold the soil. I have some that I can divide and some seeds that I will sow this winter. I also hope to find some end of year goodies in September.
You can see some of the tire marks in the grass... this low spot stays wet a lot longer than any other part of the yard.

Same section, looking uphill instead of down from the deck.

And of course I had company in the garden as I was walking around--- another little Fence lizard. To give you perspective these are blades of grass.

And finally, a shot from lower in the yard.

This is an area of the garden that needs to be replanted. Soil from the top of the hill covered baby plants at the bottom of the hill.

Will let you know if my back is sore tomorrow, but right now....feeling pretty good. Glad this part of the project is done. I like how it looks.

34 comments:

Wow! Are you and Charlie for hire?! The beds look great with the rocks, and I hope this helps alleviate some of the washout problems. I hope you had a nice, long soak in the tub tonight so you won't be too achy tomorrow!

I am sure you are glad to have that behind you! Looks great! I need to mulch too but it will wait until cooler weather is upon us. Those fence lizards look intimidating but they are so adorable and fun to watch!

Oh, man! Can I identify. Usually I pick up rocks by the side of the road and they accumulate slowly. Last week, during a heat wave, our neighbor offered me a pile of rocks, so I went back and forth with the wheelbarrow and nearly had a heatstroke. Rocks make such a difference...they're worth all the trouble, don't you think?

Hi Janet, The arial views of your garden always impress upon me how big your garden actually is. That is no small undertaking you have there! LOL The rocks nicely outline the flowerbeds. I bet it feels good to know this big project is done.

I hope your back isn't hurting, Janet; this looks like a lot of work! But the rocks really add a nice accent to the garden, and I'm sure they're going to help in keeping the soil from washing out. Now for the fun part--adding more plants!

Looks great! And it's always rewarding to think that you did it yourself... hope that both of you just have some sore muscles in a good way. I put in a flagstone path several years ago and felt like I had been beaten by sticks after every weekend's work! It took 3 weekends, but I was sure proud of myself. It was definitely worth it and was featured in a series of blog posts, too.

Janet, I was at this post previously and left a comment. I can see from the newer post the comment went through. I just wanted to let you know I visit your posts, but commenting has been sporadic due to WP or Blogger locking me out or something.

If you use "Anonymous" please sign your name so I know who you are...there is a lot of spam out there. Thanks for visiting today. The Queen would be pleased if you left a comment...... :-D thanks! I do respond to your comments, you can click on the email followup comments to have it in your inbox.

I am now moderating all comments. Too much spam is coming through. Sorry folks.